Howard "Pappy" Mason was a soldier. In one of the most violent eras in New York City history Pappy Mason rose above the rest to cement his reputation as one of the most feared men in the five boroughs. When the South Jamaica crack wars were in full swing and bodies were dropping by the day Pappy held court in the street and reigned king. He was the one nobody wanted to fuck with. He was the baddest man on the block. To put it quite simply, Pappy Mason was a legend in his own time. In the mid-80s the crack vial spawned violence and bloodshed, paper chasers and four corner hustlers, drug empires and kingpin galore. And in the annals of mythical druglore Pappy Mason has stood tall over time as the man, the myth and the folk hero that inspired Jay Z, Nas and 50 Cent to lionize him and his exploits in verse. "They was legends, myths like urban-legends myths," Irv Gotti said of the Southeast Queens hustlers. And for real can't nobody front on that. But let’s go way back, before Pappy was the certified street legend that he is. Let’s look at how he got to be who he was.

"There’s not a lot of history on this dude," says BC, a Queens’s hustler from the era. "They say this nigga was from the Brook, from Brooklyn somewhere. And Bing from the Supreme Team confirms, "Pappy Mason was from Brooklyn, Crown Heights, not Queens." But that didn't stop Pappy from becoming a Queens’s legend. It’s said he was born in Alabama and moved to Crown Heights at a young age. At the time Brooklyn had that thug shit on lock. Of the five boroughs Brooklyn was known for producing the thoroughest, most grimiest dudes. Pappy, who was a natural born fighter, came up in this thug culture and learned how to be a man on Brooklyn’s tough streets. First as a member of the gang, the Jolly Stompers and later as a stick up kid. Back in the day Pappy was not known as a drug player but he was known as a hothead who took no shorts and who hated the police. At a young age he was telling the police in his neighborhood to "suck my dick." He held a big middle finger up to authority. It was just how he was cut. Pappy had a problem with authority from the jump and his preferred way of handling that problem was with his fists.

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You almost can't mention Supreme Team and Queens without mentioning Pappy Mason as portrayed in the documentary above.

His violent ways and fights with police landed him in juvenile detention facilities like Warwick and Spofford. He did a fiver year sentence for attempted murder as a teenager and couldn't stay out of trouble. During one of his many stays at Spofford Youth House Pappy met another young kid who was good with his fists and hailed from the Seven Crowns gang, Lorenzo "Fat Cat" Nichols. The two young toughs hit it off. Bonded over their ability to knock motherfuckers out. They both had the I am my brother’s keeper mentality and saw the ideals they valued in themselves in each other. Spofford was an institution for bad and troubled teens. Only the worst of the worst were sent there. Kids came in bad but after years in that madhouse authorities called juvenile detention they came out worse. Pappy turned his hatred for police into a hatred for C/0's and clashed with the staff repeatedly. "Pappy’s the only person I know back then who had seven years and did everyday of it," Fat Cat said. "He left not owing a day." And when Pappy left in 1983, he had already spent a quarter of his 23 years in prison.

"In every hood people make a name for themselves." Bing says and Pappy was no different. By the time he hit the bricks in 83 his man Fat Cat was well established as a drug dealer on 150th Street in Southeast Queens. Pappy went to the block looking for Cat and Cat hired him on the spot for $1,000 a week as security. "Pap’s got a good heart," Fat Cat said. "If he's your friend, he's your friend. But if he's your enemy that’s something altogether different." Pappy was the dude crazy dudes would think twice about trying. With his no-nonsense attitude he was vicious. And don't get if fucked up, Pappy was fiercely loyal to Cat.

"When you hear Cat, you hear Pap." Says BC of the pairing. Pappy emerged as Cats man on the streets. Cat wanted Pap on his team because he knew Pap had that mad heart. And Pappy did his job with a vengeance. He pistol whipped a prostitute who stole from Cat in broad daylight on the block. He shot a rival dealer who tried to encroach on Cat’s territory and he shot a customer dead outside a church because the customer had the nerve to complain about the purity of Cat’s product. Pappy’s viciousness and image enhanced his already fearsome reputation. He had a strong mystique around him. With his Rastafarian dreadlocks and adopted Jamaican patios dudes thought he was from Jamaica. "That dude with the dreadlocks. That’s Pappy." One informer told the police. "He's Fat Cat's enforcer now. He the craziest guy out here." And street tales tell of Pappy sticking hot curling irons up dudes’ ass to torture them or get them to talk. The dude was vicious. He definitely did not play. And Pappy’s work was rewarded by Fat Cat. He handed Pappy a lucrative drug spot in Forty projects to ply his trade and get money. Pappy took the spot and ran with it.

The enforcer for Cat’s crew formed his own crew. Pappy’s sub-organization was called the Bebos. The Bebos grew dreads too and sold cocaine and heroin. "The Bebos were underneath Pap. He was the head nigga in charge," BC says. "He was amongst them Bebo niggas from Forty projects." And along with the dreadlocks Pappy’s crew emulated him in all matters, from his violent ways to his speech patterns. "They used to try and be like Pap talking Jamaican and the like. A lot of dudes were under Pap. He had a strong influence in our hood." And the Bebos adopted Rastafarian culture as their own. "They got a thing where they call one love and when Pappy say you do, you do." Scott Cobb, a Bebo said. “One love mean do or die. We all tight, we family. When Pappy give you an order you do." Pappy was down on 150th Street but his crew held it down in Forty. "Those Bebo niggas they were out there," BC says. "They had leather jackets with Bebo on it." And Phillip "Marshall" Copeland, another Bebo said, "There was no boss with us, every man was for himself. Bebo is a way of life to Rasta man and Jah for real.” But still, even with his own crew and spot Pappy was in charge of Cat’s security.

“When you think of Pap you think of an enforcer for Cat,” BC says. And Prince from the Supreme Team said, “The first person I met from Cat’s crew when I came home from state prison on July 1, 1984 was pap.” Pappy was a wild dude in the streets too. He didn’t give a fuck. He was blatant when it came to violence. “He had his own identity as far as getting busy,” BC says. “He was a loyal faithful soldier. In my hood it was all Cat and Pap.” Even the infamous Supreme weighed in on Pappy, “He was a real thorough dude.”

And when crack hit it changed Queens dramatically. The violence erupted and Pappy was at the center of it. “He was a wild nigga,” BC says. And Pappy Mason didn’t play. When Fat Cat was arrested in 1985, Pappy crept on the arresting officer as he escorted Fat Cat to a police car. Pappy slipped behind the cop and was prepared to shoot the cop to free Cat so they could make a get away but Cat shook his head no, so Pappy crept back into the cut, gun still in hand. Pap used to visit Cat in jail at the Queens House of Detention and even threatened Fat Cat’s girl after his arrest. “I don’t know what you know,” Pap told her, “But Cat says you better forget it.” And when Cat’s parole officer was killed for violating Cat’s state parole, Pappy was the main suspect. On February 28, 1985 Queens’s detectives arrested Pappy for the murder on Cat crew member Perry Bellamy’s statement. Bellamy told the cops that he lured the PO to the ambush spot where Pappy gunned him down. When the cops arrested Pappy he had a loaded .22 caliber Derringer in his boot that he was trying to get at before the officers arrested him, adding to his charges. Asked to cooperate into the affair and implicate Fat Cat for the murder of the PO, Pappy told police, “I ain’t no Perry Bellamy.” Referring to the snitch in Fat Cat’s camp. Because of his refusal to break the street code Pappy joined his boss in the Queens House of Detention. And during Pappy’s incarceration his legend grew.

"He defied the police in the street. He defied them in jail. How real is that?" BC says. "Some niggas don't bend, they don't move, they fight. It’s in the nature of a nigga like Pap. He was a cool ass nigga but he could get violent in a minute. Bug out and all that shit. But still the nigga was cool." And for a guy with such an outlandish legend he wasn't a real big dude only standing maybe 5-foot-8 or so but what made him who he was, was that pit bull heart and attitude. That take all comers mentality. Like they said, "Pappy didn’t take no short.” But looking back another hustler from the era said, “I think these guys were living a movie. They used to watch Scarface and the Godfather and they wanted to be like that.” Maybe so but whatever the reason Pappy has gone down in infamy as one of the most notorious killers to ever walk the streets of New York. And even to this day the fearless soldier Pappy Mason who some say is as strong as an ox is ready to go to war.

Tales from the pen have circulated of Pappy battling the goon squads and cell extraction teams. They say he wraps his head with towels to soften the blows from guards’ batons and saturates his body with baby oil to wrestle with the guards so they can’t grab a hold of him when they storm his cell, six deep to try and subdue one man. They say he wages a constant battle against the guards throwing shit and piss at them through the little door trap where they put the food tray through. Because you know Pappy Mason is in 24 hour lockdown. He long ago forfeited his right to be on a regular compound. “Pappy Mason’s burnt out. I was with him at MCC in 92. He had dreads down to the floor, slept underneath the bed, smoked a carton of cigs a day,” said one federal prisoner.

“They said in Attica he was bugged out.” BC says. “He was crazy but that don’t take nothing away from him. Street niggas love this dude because they know he gets busy.” Pappy’s life now consists of threatening officers, cell extraction and cutting up snitches who he hates with a passion. After 18 years at USP Marion, Pappy was transferred to ADX Florence in Colorado, the Bureau of Prisons Supermax and home to the most notorious criminals in the U.S. It’s said that the feds shoot him up with large doses of Thorazine to keep him docile. Pappy even admitted this, “The government shot me up with Thorazine, but Jah makes a way, so God brings me back to Bebo. I am not crazy, I am in prions for something I did not do.” Pappy is still at this time fighting to overturn his conviction and life sentence in the feds, waging a constant battle on multiple fronts.

“The nigga took that time. He ain’t crying, he took it, he doing it.” BC says. “You got to salute a nigga like that. I just know this nigga is burned out but Pap a stand up nigga, they love that nigga son. They love that nigga because he stood up. He’s in the joint and he still don’t give a fuck. His influence is so strong a heritage that’s not even his salutes this dude. The Jamaicans claim Pap like he’s one of their own. He’s not. He’s American.” And on the whole Fat Cat snitch fiasco Pappy stands firm.

“They lie on Fat Cat and me word to mother.” Pappy said. Pappy calls Cat his brother. But street legend discredits pappy due to him being shot up with Thorazine. Some dudes say he doesn’t know what he’s saying but whatever the truth it’s caused a lot of controversy. Not enough to diminish Pappy’s infamy though. Even though he’s been locked away from the world for the last twenty years his legend lives on. As does his link with Fat Cat. "They will forever be linked together." BC says but unlike Cat Pappy will forever be recognized as a stand up dude whereas Fat Cats credentials, right or wrong, are in question. A chilling fact rises to the surface though in this story and that is no matter who ordered it the bullets that killed Edward Byrne - were meant for the other cop, the one called Iceman.